This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
After several of the businesses were supposedly involved in fraud, abuse, and other offences, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the closure of all Asian offshore gaming companies on Monday.
The online games, known as POGOs in the Philippines, proliferated during the presidency of former President Rodrigo Duterte, whose name ended in 2022. They attracted clients from mainland China, where gambling is illegal, and other immigrants and were often embroiled in disagreement.
In his second state-of-the-country address, Marcos remarked,” We now hear the loud shouts of the people to boycott POGOs.” ” Disguising as reputable companies, their businesses have ventured into illegal areas, far from gaming”, he told , a joint session of Congress.
” Effective immediately, all POGOs are banned”, Marcos said. By the end of the year, he said, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation has been given the order to shut down and halt activities at the online games.
More than 250 POGOs may be operating without a permit, according to the gaming industry regulation.  ,
A held mayor who had alleged links to illegitimate gaming users was the subject of a Senate investigation, prompting Marcos ‘ statement.
In February and March, regulators raided two POGOs operating in a house supposedly owned by a firm of , Alice Guo, president of a village in Bamban, Tarlac state.
Lawmakers ‘ allegations that Guo is a Chinese federal named Guo Huaping, who allegedly fabricated her Filipino personality, were refuted by the paperwork that lawmakers presented during their investigation.
In light of Manila and Beijing’s growing sea tensions in the South China Sea, Guo’s event has surfaced.  ,
The Philippines and China are locked in a years-long debate over the resource-rich lake. Other states including Vietnam, Brunei, and Malaysia have overlapping says to the lakes. Taiwan is also a claim.
Several Asian security officials had concerns that Beijing might be engaging in illegal games activities to cause trouble in the nation.
Marcos has attributed Beijing’s increased assertiveness in the South China Sea to the Duterte administration’s pro-China position.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila demanded last month that Manila halt the virtual casino operators. It said Beijing “prohibits all kinds of gambling”.
” POGO is harmful to both Philippine and Chinese passions and pictures as well as China-Philippines relationships”, the ambassador said in , a speech.  ,
On July 1, Manila and Beijing reached a mutual agreement to intensify cooperation in the fight against international acts, including POGO-related illegal activities.
Manila’s battle in the South China Sea ,
In his conversation, Marcos added that Manila had not bow down in a territorial dispute with Beijing. Soon thereafter, both sides made contradictory statements regarding resupply orders to disputed troops in the South China Sea.  ,
” The Philippines cannot offer”, he said. In a” fair and western way,” Manila may continue to assert its rights.
The president said the country continues to strengthen its “defensive posture, both through developing self-reliance and through partnerships with like-minded states” . ,  ,
A landmark Reciprocal Access Agreement between the Philippines and Japan was signed just before this month that allows for troops to be deployed on each other’s land.
The Philippines is considering signing related defence agreements with France, Canada, and New Zealand, according to Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Monday. They will enable greater connectivity among Manila’s lovers, he said.
” The West Philippine Sea is not just a figment of our mind. This is ours”, Marcos said in his statement. ” And this will be ours until the lights of our precious land, the Philippines, continue to burn glaringly”.
The West Philippine Sea, Manila’s special economic zone, refers to the regions located in the South China Sea.
On Monday, a , political tit-for-tat , between Manila and Beijing erupted days before Marcos ‘ speech in Congress.  ,
On Sunday, Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs announced that the two countries reached a “provisional agreement” on the Philippines ‘ resupply missions to a military outpost in the Second Thomas ( Ayungin ) Shoal.  ,
It did not provide any more information.
However, in response to China’s earlier activity of local Mischief Reef, the country’s foreign ministry placed restrictions and demanded that the Philippines remove the World War II-era ship, which was intentionally grounded in the reef in 1999.
If the Philippines informs China in progress and after on-site identification is completed,” China is willing to allow it in a humanitarian soul.” China may monitor the entire supplies process”, a government spokesperson said , on Monday.
Similar problems were later denied by DFA spokesman Teresita Daza.  ,
